"scarecrow" ASL American Sign Language

scarecrow

In a message dated 10/22/2002 4:39:13 PM Central Daylight Time, Anna writes:

Bill,

I have been going crazy trying to find the sign for scarecrow and was thrilled when a search for it brought me to your website. Unfortunately, it is one of the signs not yet up and running, could you email me a description of it as soon as possible? I have some elementary teachers trying to teach their kids a Halloween song with the word scarecrow in it.

Thanks,
Anna
-------------------

Hello Anna,

There is no sign for scarecrow. I interviewed half a dozen expert signers. No sign, nada, zip. Sorry.

There are workarounds, of course.

You have to explain it the first time. Then you can establish a sign for it to be used during that SAME conversation.

I suggested a mime-type sign wherein you hold your arms up and tilt your head as if you were a scarecrow. Most of my peers seemed to agree that such a sign would be adequate for various storytelling activities if it were properly introduced.

I personally like the idea of signing "SCARE" plus "BIRD" but none of the other Deaf I showed it to liked that compound sign. Bah! I think I'm just surrounded by language purists. I reckon if I asked a wider audience I'd get a fair number who would go for "SCARE + BIRD." But, until I actually DO get a consensus, I'm going to tell people to spell it out, or establish a conversation specific mime-type sign for "SCARECROW."

Bill

In a message dated 11/17/2006 1:59:17 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, cpt.scarecrow@ writes:

Hello,

I've just started learning sign language a bit. And so far I just know a few words and the alphabet.
However I wanted to post a "Thank You" movie on Youtube.com for someone who had introduced me to sign language in basic signs. I found most words online. However for my nickname (Scarecrow) I didn't find a single sign. The only somewhat helpful page I found was http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/s/scarecrow.htm in which you tell someone that there isn't a scarecrow sign (yet).
I was thinking about that, and although I'm completely new to sign language, the "mime-type sign wherein you hold your arms up and tilt your head as if you were a scarecrow" as you suggested seems a bit of a large sign to me. I was also thinking more into the lines of scare+bird, but as you said the "experts" didn't like that I thought of another sign.
I based my nickname on the book Scarecrow from Matthew Reilly. The origin of the main characters nickname 'Scarecrow' is based upon vertical scars running over each of his eyes (which were inflicted during torturing). I don't know much about scarecrows, but since the author of the book thought vertical scars over the eyes would make people think of a scarecrow i thought that could be used as a sign for it.
So the sign I would suggest for "scarecrow" would be to hold both your index fingers in front of your eyes.
Does this seem like a good sign to you, and more importantly, is it a new sign, or does it already mean something else?

Thanks in advance for your answer,

"Scarecrow"

Dear "Scarecrow,"
Hmmm, I don't think the general Deaf community would go for the vertical index fingers in front of the eyes. I personally don't care for it much either since when I think of a scarecrow I don't think of scars on the eyes.
I do think of "hay" poking out from the collar and the sleeves though. Thus a sign based on crossing the hands over the chest so that the fingers poke out from the neck as if representing "hay" might be an interesting possibility.
I will ask around again (now that I'm in a different state from where I did my earlier research) and see what people think around here or if any of them already have a sign.
--Bill